During the last three or four decades, there has been a vigorous surge of interest in the phenomenon of teaching. We have had task forces to help task forces. We have had experts help the educators, and we have had the educators help the experts. We have had the government helping everybody. Many types of research have been done to find new and modern techniques to enhance students’ learning opportunities.

A new aid to rapid, almost magical, learning has made its appearance. Indications are that, if it catches on, all the electronic gadgets will take a back seat, or at least a reduced role, in education. The new device is known as “Built-in Orderly Organized Knowledge.” The makers generally call it by its initials – BOOK.

Many advantages are claimed over the old-style learning and teaching aids on which most students are brought up on nowadays. It is made entirely without mechanical parts to go wrong or need replacement.

Anyone can use BOOK, even children, and it fits comfortably into their hands.
How does this revolutionary, unbelievably easy invention work? Basically, BOOK consists only of a large number of paper sheets. These may run into the hundreds where BOOK covers a lengthy program of information. Each sheet of paper presents the user with an information sequence in the form of symbols. No buttons need to be pressed to move from one sheet to another, to open or close BOOK, or to start it.

BOOK may be taken up at any time and used by merely opening it. It is instantly ready for use. The user may turn at will to any sheet, going backwards or forwards as the user pleases.

The purpose of this satire is to remind us that we shouldn’t overlook the forest for the trees. Reading is still the primary method of learning, and sometimes we look at all the aids to education and forget that old methods and ideas still hold a valuable place in our lives.